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Publicising your study

The one-namer will wish to publicise his or her one-name study in as many places as possible, to maximise the number of contacts and hence the amount of additional information that such contacts can contribute. Naturally, for Guild-registered studies, a major route to publicity will be through inclusion in the Guild Register, which is not only available online through this website, but also is accessible in printed form through many libraries, record offices, and family history societies.

In addition the one-namer will seek alternative publicity routes. Nowadays, a one-name website is likely to be the most effective way to promulgate your study. The Members’ Websites Project is designed to provide a safe haven for members’ one-name study websites. Members can upload to the Project’s webserver a one-name study website concerned with any surname which they have registered with the Guild.

Guild members who are not confident in their ability to create a website may acquire a web presence for their one-name study through the Guild’s profile-page facility, without needing to know anything about the technicalities of building web pages.

Other places to consider include:

Family History magazines; for example, Family Tree Magazine (which has an online register of family tree interests) www.family-tree.co.uk

You might also consider setting up a one-name mailing list via Rootsweb or British Genealogy.

The more you publicise your study, the more responses and enquiries you are likely to get – although a really unusual name is never likely to receive many contacts. Guild members have committed to respond to all reply-paid letters and emails. However, you should consider how much information you should give to enquirers, and how you persuade them to let you have their data. We would recommend that, in providing information to others, you consider the need to respect the privacy of living people.

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